GABBERT BUTTE NATURE PARK Hello,Gresham We’Re Parks Metro and Trails

GABBERT BUTTE NATURE PARK Hello,Gresham We’re parks Metro and trails

The second-largest city in the Portland metropolitan area, Gresham is home to just over 108,000 residents DRAFT 10-3-2016 and diverse natural features, including wetlands, riparian areas, forested uplands and buttes. Over the last 150 years, Gresham’s landscape has changed from a quiet berry-farming community to a busy city with a wide variety of neighborhoods. Today, one of the most noticeable vestiges of the forestry and agricultural economy that remain are the upland open space buttes. Open space preservation Gresham has a long history of public support for protecting its diverse natural features. The earliest Gabbert Butte preservation and park planning dates back to the 1990 City of Gresham Open Space Bond Measure, where Gresham voters approved $10.3 million in general-obligation bonds to purchase park sites, wetlands, buttes, greenways and creek corridors for preservation. Significantly, Gresham’s was the first open-space bond measure approved by any community in the Portland metropolitan area.

Restoration Throughout the city, restoration work is helping to improve water quality, minimize erosion and property loss, reduce flood damage and boost diversity of plant and animal life. Restoration projects in natural areas help return the ecosystem to a healthy, functioning condition. In the East Buttes, the city has focused restoration efforts on removing invasives and planting native plants. Restoration of City owned land near Butler Road included planting 5,000 forbs, rushes, shrubs, and trees. GABBERT BUTTE NATURE PARK Project overview

Project Goals Opportunities to weigh in Protect habitat and water quality Open houses, and on-line surveys at DRAFT 10-3-2016 and provide meaningful and safe three milestones experiences of nature. 1. Summer 2017: Learn about Encourage participation in the site and the project, and planning from people from diverse cultural backgrounds, ages and share your ideas, or provide levels of ability. feedback on line Develop a plan to guide future 2. Fall 2017: Weigh in on site public access to the site that plan alternatives includes welcoming entry, 3. Winter 2017: Provide improved trails and opportunities feedback about preferred site to experience nature. plan Spring 2018: Review master plan document online

Project Schedule GABBERT BUTTE NATURE PARK In the neighborhood

Downtown Gresham

Portland Centennial HS Adventist ES Dr Kane SE West Gresham ES

E Powell Blvd Gordon W Powell Blvd Hollydale SW Eastman Pkwy East Gresham Russell School ES ES MS ek SE RobertsThom Dr Creek Springwater Trail er Cre

reek Mill Johns on C SE Hogan Rd Gresham Butte SE Palmquist Rd Chastain Creek SE Orient Dr Heiney Creek Springwater Jenne Trail HS Butte Cedar Creek reek Creek Hogan Cedars SE Palmblad Rd Meadow C Brick ES eek reek

adow CrSE Regner Rd ek Mt. Hood Butler Creek ork Me echacokeeHog C an Cre Christian Preschool N rk o F st e HWY 26 Bear Creek South F

W Johnso SW Pleasant View Dr View Pleasant SW n Creek Gabbert Butte Butler Hogan Creek ES SW Butler Rd Ave SW Towle Butte

Hogan Creek

Towle Kelly Creek Pleasant Butte VICINITY INSET MAP Valley Wildside ES LEGEND West Bliss MULTNOMAH COUNTY Butte Sunshine Butte Gabbert Butte Master Plan Area Portland CLACKAMAS COUNTY Gresham city limits Fairview Drainageways Wood Village SE Foster Rd Parks and natural areas Troutdale Cemeteries Gresham Golf courses Schools (ES - Elementary School, MS - Middle School, HS - High School) East Bliss Bus stops Milwaukie Happy Valley Gabbert Butte Bus lines Butte Trails Lake Oswego Highways and arterials

Gladstone

West Linn SE Hogan Rd 0 0.125 Miles

Oregon City NTS Sunshine Creek GABBERT BUTTE NATURE PARK The landscape today

Gresham Butte

Meadow Creek

ddle Trail Chastain Creek Sa 1

SW Regner Rd

Water Tank reek eek Heiney Creek 2 okee C w Cr

Nechac Meado

SW Towle Ave SW Towle

3 South Fork Fork South n Creek

4 ork Hoga Water Tower

West F 5

SW 31st St

8

7 SW 33rd St 6 SW G utle abbert Fork B r C Rd h re ek Nort 11 13 10 12 Hogan 9 Butte

SW 36th St

SW Butler Rd SW 37th Ter LEGEND Gabbert Butte master plan area Trail Butler Creek SW Regner Rd Trailhead Drainageway Bus stop Bus line Public land

Towle 0 200 Feet Butte GABBERT BUTTE NATURE PARK Visitor experience

1 2 4

3

7

5 6 8 9

10 114 12 13 GABBERT BUTTE NATURE PARK Habitat

NE Burnside Rd PORTLAND GRESHAM

SE Division St Willame rshed tte ate Riv Columbia River W er - Frontal hed on Creek Waters HWY 26 Johns

SE Powell Blvd SE Kane Rd Kane SE

SE 182nd Ave

Lowe Johnson Creek r Sandy SE 122nd Ave Powell

Butte Gresham SE Hogan Rd Butte R SE Orient Dr Jenne iver

B

Butte u W t l a

e t

r e

SE Foster Rd C r r s e h ek ed Gabbert Butte Hogan SW Butler Rd Butte

Towle HWY 26 Kelly Creek Butte MULTNOMAH COUNTY West Bliss Sunshine Butte CLACKAMAS COUNTY Butte

Watershed Creek East Bliss LEGEND River Watershed Butte Johnson amas Gabbert Butte Master Plan Area er Clack Low City limits HAPPY VALLEY Scouter Highways and arterials Mountain Drainageways Parks and natural areas Watershed boundaries

0 0.25 Miles

Migrating birds and resident wildlife Connecting habitats Water quality

Like islands in the sea, the East Buttes are important The East Buttes natural areas help connect the watersheds of the Clackamas The East Buttes natural areas protect the for migrating birds, who need places to stop, eat and River and Johnson Creek. This is important for long-term health and diversity of headwaters of Butler, Meadow and Kelley creeks and rest along their journey. For wildlife that lives here, species facing habitat loss and climate change. many other tributaries that flow into Johnson Creek. the East Buttes provide a home, places to hunt and Upper Kelley Creek’s diversity of crustaceans, worms forage, and connections to streams, rivers and larger and aquatic insects shows the benefits of keeping habitat areas. Upland forest water cool and clean upstream. A mix of conifers and deciduous trees covers the East Buttes. Upland forests like this are common in the Pacific Northwest, but in urban areas forests have been fragmented and removed by the growth of cities. The lands protected in the East Buttes preserve core areas of upland forest within a developing area. GABBERT BUTTE NATURE PARK East Buttes wildlife

Forest restoration on Metro's West Bliss Butte DRAFT 10-3-2016 This former hay field is planted This Savannah sparrow with wildflowers, native shrubs is an example of a and widely spaced trees. The migrating songbird who wildflowers and shrubs provide can take advantage food for wildlife from polinators of East Buttes habitat to deer, while the Douglas-fir trees during migration and grow with dense, broad branches nesting seasons. typical of old-growth forests. photo: Phil Nosler

West Bliss Butte pollinator habitat City of Gresham restoration work in the East Buttes

The city has completed numerous habitat surveys in the East Buttes and on Gabbert Butte including: upland, riparian and wetland vegetation, birds, terrestrial and aquatic amphibians, and snakes. Over the past 15 years, and with help from volunteers, the City has completed restoration of approximately 20 acres on Gabbert Butte. A nearby effort includes a large area of holly removal from a former holly farm on Gresham Butte. Ivy removal at Butler Creek Volunteer restoration event

Oregon Slender Salamander

Years of work by City staff has documented Oregon Slender Salamanders in the East Buttes including on Gabbert Butte. Prior to their discovery here, they had not been found west of the Cascades. The Oregon Conservation Strategy considers Oregon Slender Salamander a sensitive species. They like moist places inside large decaying logs or under slabs of bark that have fallen off of snags. Oregon Slender Salamanders are lungless and breathe through their skin!

Flying Squirrels

Have you seen nesting boxes on some of the trees at Gabbert Butte? The nesting boxes were installed to support northern flying squirrels. The flying squirrel doesn’t actually fly, it glides from tree to tree. These animals typically nest in large holes in trees and eat fungi and lichens, as well as seeds, nuts, insects, bird eggs and nestlings and conifer cones. Flying squirrels are seldom seen because they are nocturnal.

photo: Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife photo: Caters news agency GABBERT BUTTE NATURE PARK Volcanoes and floods

DRAFT 10-3-2016

Lava domes Gabbert Butte is part of the Boring Volcanic Field, which contains more than 80 small volcanic vents and lava flows. These eruptions were caused by the Juan de Fuca Plate sliding under the North American Plate. Each lava dome erupted just once, and thick, slow-moving magma created buttes that we see today. The first eruptions began about 2.5 million years ago, and between 1.3 and 1 million years ago, the active field was widespread. The existing lava domes are now extinct, but some believe that the boring lava field is not. Don't worry, the likelihood of an eruption is very low! Towle Butte

The youngest volcano, Floods Beacon Rock, erupted about 57,000 years ago, About 15,000 years ago, the lands surrounding the buttes and then the Missoula were flooded repeatedly, when ice dams gave way and Floods scoured away the emptied glacial Lake Missoula. The Missoula (or Bretz) cinder cone, leaving just its Floods covered the valley floor with hundreds of feet of central plug. water. Rich farmland resulted from soils washed into the valley by the floods. GABBERT BUTTE NATURE PARK Site analysis

Trails Tree Height Slope

SW Towle Ave SW Towle

SW Regner Rd SW Regner Rd

SW Regner Rd

SW Towle Ave SW Towle Ave SW Towle

20 - 50 ft 51 - 75 ft 76 - 100 ft 3 - 8 % Trails 101 - 125 ft 8 - 15 % Water Tanks 126 - 150 ft 15 - 30 % Trailheads SW Butler Rd SW Butler Rd 151 - 200 ft SW Butler Rd 30 - 60 %

Today, there are about 1.5 miles of trails on Gabbert Butte, which can be Gabbert Butte’s upland forests make for an ideal Northwest forest experience, Gabbert Butte’s steep slopes make it more challenging to choose locations for accessed via neighborhood trailsheads. although views of the surrounding hills are hard to come by. parking and other facilities.

Elevation Hydrology Ownership

SW Towle Ave SW Towle

SW Towle Ave SW Towle

SW Towle Ave SW Towle SW Regner Rd SW Regner Rd SW Regner Rd

Metro & Gresham High - 994 ft Metro Intermittent Streams SW Butler Rd Low - 494 ft SW Butler Rd SW Butler Rd Gresham

Gabbert Butte ranges from 494 feet in the lowest valley to 994 feet at the top, Many seasonal streams flow across the site toward Butler Creek, Meadow Creek The city of Gresham and Metro both own land within the project area. Metro and creating 500 feet of elevation change. and Johnson Creek. Protected forests along the streams keep this water cool Gresham take care of this land on behalf of the public. and clean for salmon and other wildlife downstream.